


The Stars No Longer Light The Way

by chaos_is_welcome



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24083785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaos_is_welcome/pseuds/chaos_is_welcome
Summary: As Geralt leaves Brokilon, he is plagued by dreams of Ciri, but Yennifer is conspicuously absent.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Kudos: 13





	The Stars No Longer Light The Way

**Author's Note:**

> A hodgepodge of a mess of the movie and books. Set in the first third or so of Baptism of Fire.  
> I don't know what this is but as I was reading, I wanted more of Geralt's thought process. I want to know where Yennefer is and I definitely want them back on my pages together sooner than the book will allow. I don't know if I will continue this. Enjoy. First time writing for this fandom. Unbetaed and to be honest I didn't even proofread. I am usually more detail orientated but eh, it is what it is.

He has dreamed of Ciri again.

Milva tells him to speak of it, so he does, but there is no relief in the words. 

As the others go to sleep, he stares at the dark sky through the trees, starlight twinkling through the boughs like diamonds. Ciri looked happy and not. . .herself. it made him remember those time in Kaer Morhen when she had entered a trance, when they had first known she was something other. Triss had come, and helped them understand, but in the end, Geralt had sent her away. He had sent Yennefer to her, yes, but he had sent her away all the same.

When she had come to him in the night, riding with the wild hunt on her tail, in neverending danger, as she always seemed to be, he hadn't taken time with Ciri, not really. Not like he knows now that he should have. He forgets, sometimes, the vagaries of human interaction. 

You don't need anyone, Witcher, Milva had said. Oh but he did. In the time he had see Ciri in that time between her arrival back into his life and the utter disaster at Thaedd, he hadn't once voiced that he was glad to see Ciri. He had been so shaken by how much she had changed in her time away, no longer a girl, but a woman. He had been distracted by Yen's reappearance in front of him after years and years...he hadn't taken the time to say what he should have to Ciri. What if that aggregious oversight now allowed her to believe that he, Geralt of Rivia, had abandoned her. Perhaps she had given up hope, and forged a new family, done what she had to survive. The hopelessness resurfaced again, that feeling that she had given up pieces of herself, the good, strong pieces that made her who she was, in order to survive.

Unbidden, Yen's face is there in the starry boughs, her violet eyes shining as she smiles at Ciri. He knows, just knows, that Yen is not with Ciri. Yen had not separated from the child since Geralt sent her to Nenekke to help with Ciri's training, yet she is not with the girl now. He does not know how he knows, but he just does. In the years he has been away from Yen--since the djinn, since the dragon, since had been so certain she had left him on that fucking hill with the obelisk--he has always dreamed of her. Whether he is injured and restless or sleeping soundly, she comes to him in his dreams. Sometimes, of course, he might take a hallucinogen to help him along to her, especially when the pain is great, as it had been when the greevers had bitten him, before he had found Ciri. But she's there, sooner or later.

Except this time she isn't. She's just gone. He is afraid to think too much about what that means and tells himself again, as he has a thousand times before, that it's because the dryads of Brokilon don't manage pain as witchers do, and perhaps that has blocked her presence. The violet eyes above him fade and he feels that ache in his too slow heart that makes the ache in his knee utterly forgettable. Yen is gone, and he has no idea where she is, or if she's even alive. There is no word of her, no rumors beyond that she turned traitor. It's as if she has vanished from the earthly relm. (He knows he's lying to himself, and he just can't stop, not yet, not until he has Ciri. When she is safe, when he has something to hold on to, maybe he will face the truth.) The ache in his heart grows, so he focuses on Ciri again--on the details surrounding her as she laughs and dances, and holds hands with the tall girl. 

Hopelessness and despair chase Geralt into a restless sleep.

The next day, Geralt fought, and killed, and felt helpless no more. For a moment anyway. Covered in blood and with the bodies of the filthy scum who raped that farm girl scattered around him, he was finally doing something.

\-------  
It's been decades since Yennefer has been a hunchback, but as she comes to on the cold stone floor, she feels the familiar ache in her left shoulder. She tries to rise, but can't. Her arms are bound and under her. She can not manage to lever herself up. She says a spell and feels nothing but gaping emptiness. The chaos that is her constant companion is nowhere to be found. She can only sense the pain her her back, the coppery taste in her mouth, and the cold floor. The chains binding her are enchanted. She hears footsteps, a door, and suddenly the world fades to black.


End file.
